#medieval houses

[princesspiratecat]

Need some Inspiration?

For those of you that want some inspiration for building historical houses, check out the English Heritage website. This is just one of several lovelies I want to recreate, Fiddleford Manor.

[chic-beyond-the-wall]

More medieval dyes for y'all!

[suzannahnatters]

all RIGHT:

Why You're Writing Medieval (and Medieval-Coded) Women Wrong: A RANT

(Or, For the Love of God, People, Stop Pretending Victorian Style Gender Roles Applied to All of History)

This is a problem I see alllll over the place - I'll be reading a medieval-coded book and the women will be told they aren't allowed to fight or learn or work, that they are only supposed to get married, keep house and have babies, &c &c.

If I point this out ppl will be like "yes but there was misogyny back then! women were treated terribly!" and OK. Stop right there.

By & large, what we as a culture think of as misogyny & patriarchy is the expression prevalent in Victorian times - not medieval. (And NO, this is not me blaming Victorians for their theme park version of "medieval history". This is me blaming 21st century people for being ignorant & refusing to do their homework).

Yes, there was misogyny in medieval times, but 1) in many ways it was actually markedly less severe than Victorian misogyny, tyvm - and 2) it was of a quite different type. (Disclaimer: I am speaking specifically of Frankish, Western European medieval women rather than those in other parts of the world. This applies to a lesser extent in Byzantium and I am still learning about women in the medieval Islamic world.)

So, here are the 2 vital things to remember about women when writing medieval or medieval-coded societies

FIRST. Where in Victorian times the primary axes of prejudice were gender and race - so that a male labourer had more rights than a female of the higher classes, and a middle class white man would be treated with more respect than an African or Indian dignitary - In medieval times, the primary axis of prejudice was, overwhelmingly, class. Thus, Frankish crusader knights arguably felt more solidarity with their Muslim opponents of knightly status, than they did their own peasants. Faith and age were also medieval axes of prejudice - children and young people were exploited ruthlessly, sent into war or marriage at 15 (boys) or 12 (girls). Gender was less important.

What this meant was that a medieval woman could expect - indeed demand - to be treated more or less the same way the men of her class were. Where no ancient legal obstacle existed, such as Salic law, a king's daughter could and did expect to rule, even after marriage.

Women of the knightly class could & did arm & fight - something that required a MASSIVE outlay of money, which was obviously at their discretion & disposal. See: Sichelgaita, Isabel de Conches, the unnamed women fighting in armour as knights during the Third Crusade, as recorded by Muslim chroniclers.

Tolkien's Eowyn is a great example of this medieval attitude to class trumping race: complaining that she's being told not to fight, she stresses her class: "I am of the house of Eorl & not a serving woman". She claims her rights, not as a woman, but as a member of the warrior class and the ruling family. Similarly in Renaissance Venice a doge protested the practice which saw 80% of noble women locked into convents for life: if these had been men they would have been "born to command & govern the world". Their class ought to have exempted them from discrimination on the basis of sex.

So, tip #1 for writing medieval women: remember that their class always outweighed their gender. They might be subordinate to the men within their own class, but not to those below.

SECOND. Whereas Victorians saw women's highest calling as marriage & children - the "angel in the house" ennobling & improving their men on a spiritual but rarely practical level - Medievals by contrast prized virginity/celibacy above marriage, seeing it as a way for women to transcend their sex. Often as nuns, saints, mystics; sometimes as warriors, queens, & ladies; always as businesswomen & merchants, women could & did forge their own paths in life

When Elizabeth I claimed to have "the heart & stomach of a king" & adopted the persona of the virgin queen, this was the norm she appealed to. Women could do things; they just had to prove they were Not Like Other Girls. By Elizabeth's time things were already changing: it was the Reformation that switched the ideal to marriage, & the Enlightenment that divorced femininity from reason, aggression & public life.

For more on this topic, read Katherine Hager's article "Endowed With Manly Courage: Medieval Perceptions of Women in Combat" on women who transcended gender to occupy a liminal space as warrior/virgin/saint.

So, tip #2: remember that for medieval women, wife and mother wasn't the ideal, virgin saint was the ideal. By proving yourself "not like other girls" you could gain significant autonomy & freedom.

Finally a bonus tip: if writing about medieval women, be sure to read writing on women's issues from the time so as to understand the terms in which these women spoke about & defended their ambitions. Start with Christine de Pisan.

I learned all this doing the reading for WATCHERS OF OUTREMER, my series of historical fantasy novels set in the medieval crusader states, which were dominated by strong medieval women! Book 5, THE HOUSE OF MOURNING (forthcoming 2023) will focus, to a greater extent than any other novel I've ever yet read or written, on the experience of women during the crusades - as warriors, captives, and political leaders. I can't wait to share it with you all!

[livesunique]

Burg Niederfalkenstein, Obervellach, Carinthia, Austria

Courtesy: Austria Paradise

[strange-house-art]

𝕯𝖆𝖓𝖈𝖎𝖓𝖌 𝕵𝖊𝖘𝖙𝖊𝖗𝖘

[artist-ellen]

Alicent Hightower, Little Miss Greensleeves

At the wedding of Rhaenyra and Laenor Valeryon Alicent makes a dramatic entrance in a brilliant green gown. A declaration for House Hightower instead of the reds and blacks she used to wear for her husband's House. I know some people love this show-dress but I can't get behind it. It looks too flimsy to be a Queen's show-stopping ensemble. It needed length, or folds of fabric... even just better lining in the bodice would have helped. It's honestly looked better in the cosplays I've seen.

I will give it to the show designers though, it is a hard gown to design. I completed this illustration at least 3 times before I knew for certain what it was going to look like. Hopefully the elements of Hightower fashion/anti-Targaryen fashion i've been mentioning and building to are recognizable.

I am the artist! Do not post without permission & credit! Thank you! Come visit me over on: instagram, tiktok or check out my coloring book available now \ („• ֊ •„) /

https://linktr.ee/ellen.artistic

[probablyasocialecologist]

"The desire to be 'accurate' suddenly disappears when sex isn't involved and it is actual interesting day to day minutiae," says Eleanor Janega, a medieval historian who teaches at the London School of Economics. "If the ('Game of Thrones') world was historically accurate, why isn't every single noble house or castle absolutely covered by huge gaudy, colourful murals? Why is it that this form of historical accuracy isn't important, but showing rape as endemic is?"

Other historians point out that, as prurient and gasp-worthy as something like a crude C-section death is, such butchery wasn't as prevalent as storytellers would have you believe.

"They were very keen on protecting mothers from harm," medieval history scholar Sara McDougall told Slate.

Texts from the time indicate that such extreme measures would usually be performed on women who had already died -- not, as in "House of the Dragon," a fully awake and alert woman with no clue what was about to happen to her.

[...]

Janega points out that, while medieval times were certainly not overkind to women or anyone else who wasn't rich, powerful and male, they weren't the burlesque of suffering we're so used to seeing on screen.

"'Accuracy' is always focusing on the distasteful aspects of a society, but never the pleasurable ones," she says. "(It) somehow always encompasses sexual violence and never things like, for example, the three field system, or fishing weirs. They don't really show how women other than the nobility are a dynamic part of the medieval workforce. Women are found in pretty much every facet of medieval work: as blacksmiths, running shops, brewing beer, in cloth production, running bath houses or in trading delegations addressing the court."

[wodania]

jaime and cersei sharing wardrobes

bonus under the cut

[warmdragonstew]

egg ii charmed me with his goofy unserious ass in the trailers

[malpracticinghomosexual]

hilson with cats

[bbygirl-aemond]

hotd's commentary on patriarchy is so much more interesting when you allow yourself to acknowledge the differences in privilege and power between the various women we see. aemma, alicent, laena, rhaenys, rhaenyra- they all have varying levels of privilege that come to them either indirectly or directly. rhaenyra is, ofc, undisputedly at the top. and this doesn't sideline or villainize rhaenyra in any way, because no amount of privilege will change the fact that she is not a man. like otto said: she could be jaehaerys reborn, could be as wise and powerful and mighty as any human being could be, and at the end of the day society would still see her as a woman. as the most powerful woman, sure, but as a woman. and i think that's just a much more salient point- that no amount of power within a system will allow you to breach the confines of that system. no matter how much influence these woman gain within the system of patriarchy, they're never able to be free of it.

[emynarnen]

RHAENYRA TARGARYEN: Hair in Season 1

[chic-beyond-the-wall]

More natural dyes! I honestly love stuff like this so much.

[eve-to-adam]

Elizabeth of York, fashion character design. Mourning outfit, c. 1482.

[livesunique]

Swabian Castle, Rocca Imperiale, Cosenza, Calabria, Italy